Photograph by: JONATHAN HAYWARD
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

If the Vancouver Canucks truly were embarrassed by Saturday night’s ugly loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, they apparently had gotten over it by the time the puck dropped Monday night.

They were just as bad, maybe even worse, against the Minnesota Wild. Especially to start the game.

The Canucks were as flat as Saskatchewan in the first period of what would become a 5-2 loss to the Wild before their frustrated fans at Rogers Arena.

The Canucks, looking to make a statement after Saturday’s stinker, were outshot 17-4 in the opening period. They played with little emotion and looked very much like a team that didn’t care about the future of its coach.

The Wild, of course, just fired theirs. Riding an eight-game losing streak and with just one win in their previous 14 games, the Wild made interim coach John Torchetti a winner in his debut.

Fired coach Mike Yeo must have been saying, ‘if only I could have made it to Vancouver.’

The Canucks had trouble explaining another flat start in the wake of Saturday’s debacle.

“There’s no excuses for giving up (shots) like that,” said forward Jannik Hansen. “I don’t know what happened. They came at us with a lot of speed, putting pucks in deep and were on our Ds and we had a hard time getting out of our own end. You spend too much time in your own end and you tend to be on the receiving end of a lot of chances.

“I thought from there on we got a little better hold on our game and started producing some chances. Our power play was good tonight, which was good to see.”

“I think if one or two players don’t play good, I think it’s the players,” Desjardins said. “But I think if the team as a group isn’t ready to go, then I think it’s probably the coach more. Our guys knew what was coming. It wasn’t like they were surprised by what was coming. We just took a little while to adjust.”

The loss dropped Vancouver’s home record to an abysmal 9-12-5. When this season is dissected, the Canucks’ inability to win at home will figure prominently in the discussion.

“On the road we focus on defence, each and every guy,” said winger Daniel Sedin. “We take care of defence first and we’ll take the chances we get. At home there’s too many guys trying to produce and push for offence. It’s pretty obvious. We are a different team on the road than we are at home.”

About the only positive to take from this game was the fact that Vancouver’s struggling power play scored both of the team’s goals.

The Canucks entered the game having scored on just one of their previous 20 power-play opportunities.

“I thought after we scored the second goal we started to take over the game,” said captain Henrik Sedin. “But when they score the fourth one, it’s uphill again.” Henrik Sedin bounced a puck from a sharp angle off Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk and in to cut the Minnesota lead to 3-2 at 10:17 of the second.

But three minutes later, after a questionable hooking call on Bo Horvat, the Wild restored their two-goal lead with a power-play goal of their own. Charlie Coyle’s attempted cross-ice pass bounced off Tanev and past Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom, whose five-game winning streak was snapped.

“That is the way it has been lately,” said Henrik. “We get close and we let one goal in quickly and all of a sudden it’s a two-goal game again. It was the same on (Saturday) when we get a first goal and they score two quickly. There have been some very untimely goals for us.”

The Canucks did play better after that awful first period and hit three posts.

“Their power-play goal was a back-breaker,” Hansen said. “Tough bounce, but that’s what happens. . .5-2 is a little (misleading). We hit a couple of posts, where they get a little bit lucky. A couple of bounces here or there and it couldn’t have been a different scenario. But again, it isn’t.”

Game Essentials

THE DEBRIEF

The Canucks were outskated, outplayed, outshot and outscored from the start and lost 5-2 going away, dropping their fifth straight game at Rogers Arena and making their slim playoff hopes even more unlikely. The Wild, which ended an eight-game losing streak in the Minnesota debut of interim coach John Torchetti, pictured, got goals from five different players as they jumped two points clear of Vancouver in the standings. Shots were 15-2 early on and finished 34-26 for the Wild.

BY THE NUMBERS

The Canucks power play scored on its first two chances, the first time since Nov. 21 that Vancouver generated more than one goal with the man advantage … The losing streak at Rogers Arena is Vancouver’s worst at home since a 0-5-2 slump in 2008-09 … Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom, pictured, allowed more than three goals for the first time in nine starts in 2016.

DID YOU NOTICE?

Seventy-seven seconds after Chris Tanev’s power-play redirect tied the game 1-1 while Vancouver was being outshot 15-3, Markstrom appeared to duck instinctively as a muffin shot from Jared Spurgeon, pictured, deflected off a stick and tumbled in under the crossbar at 16:46 of the first period to put Minnesota ahead for good.

CANUCKS FRIESEN

Minor-league call-up Alex Friesen became the eighth Canucks rookie to make his NHL debut when he faced the Wild on a line with Linden Vey and Radim Vrbata, pictured. A sixth-round Vancouver draft pick in 2010, the 25-year-old forward spent nearly four years in the minors before getting his first NHL game. His mom and dad, girlfriend and four other family members travelled from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., to see Friesen play. He had one shot on goal and was minus-two in 11:43 of ice time.

NEXT UP

Losers of five straight home games — against five teams that could miss the playoffs — the Canucks will try their luck against a superior team when the Anaheim Ducks visit on Thursday. The Ducks, who beat the Calgary Flames 6-4 on Monday and visit the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday night, are 9-1-1 in their last 11 games and 16-4-2 since dipping three games below .500 at Christmas. Vancouver is 2-1 against Anaheim this season, winning twice in shootouts.

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